Mapping the Mars canal mania : cartographic projection and the creation of a popular icon

Author

Lane, K. Maria D.

Document type

Article (journal)

Language

English

Source

Imago mundi. 2006, Num. 2, Vol. 58, 198-211, pl. 6-8, 8 ill. (3 col.)

ISSN

0308-5694

Abstract (en)

At the turn of the 20th c., a popular mania developed around the idea that Mars was inhabited by intelligent beings. This obsession was originally based in the science of the time, but it outlasted astronomers' certainty regarding the red planet's conditions of habitability. Cartography was vital to the popular construction of Mars as an inhabited world and created a powerful landscape icon that differed significantly from the observations of astronomers. Acceptance of a Martian civilization began to wane only when cartography's status as an objective representational format was weakened by new photographic technology in the early 1900s. Although processes and formats of cartography are rarely considered primary factors in the Mars mania, they were integral to the origin, development, and expiration of the conceptualization of Mars as a world that was possibly inhabited.

Subject (en)

• General history of art -- 1800-1945 -- Pictorial arts
• Maps
• Cartography
• Astronomical charts
• Mars (planet)
• Canals
• Photography
• Extraterrestrials
• 1900-2000

Subject (fr)

• Histoire générale de l'art -- 1800-1945 -- Peinture et arts graphiques
• Carte
• Cartographie
• Carte du ciel
• Mars (planète)
• Canal
• Photographie
• Extra-terrestre
• 1900-2000

Origin

DatabaseBHA (Inist-CNRS/GRI)

Identifier20060701-00023610

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